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Fit as a Fiddle - in good health; in fine shapeorigin: This expression dates from at least the 1600s. A fiddle that is fit is well-tuned and in good shape and can play terrific music. So , it was combined wth the word 'fit' to become an alliteration.

Of course the 'fiddle' here is the colloquial name for violin. 'Fit' didn't originally mean healthy and energetic, in the sense it is often used nowadays to describe the inhabitants of gyms. When this phrase was coined 'fit' was used to mean 'suitable, seemly', in the way we now might say 'fit for purpose'.

Thomas Dekker, in The batchelars banquet, 1603 referred to 'as fine as a fiddle':

"Then comes downe mistresse Nurse as fine as a farthing fiddle, in her petticoate and kertle."

Not long afterwards, in 1616, there's W. Haughton's English-men for my Money, which includes:

"This is excellent ynfayth [in faith], as fit as a fiddle."

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9y ago

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